Digital Realty Trust closed off 2011 with more than 90% growth in earnings per share and has plans to enter new international markets.

The San Francisco-based real estate investment trust’s (REIT) CEO Michael Foust said the company could be entering the Hong Kong market as soon as this year.

“We like the Hong Kong market a lot,” Foust said on a conference call with analysts. “We’re hoping that we’re going to be participating in that market before the end of the year.”

Entry in a new European market may be in the works as well. “Frankfurt is an interesting market as well that we’re not in,” Foust said.

Digital reported its full-year 2011 financial results Friday, saying its net income for the year available to common stockholders was US$130.9m, or $1.32 earnings per share (EPS). That’s 94.1% EPS up from 2010. Its total operating revenue for the year was about $1.063bn – up 22.8% from 2010.

With what seems to be unlimited expansion capital and well-tuned processes for entry into new geographies, Digital is poised to become a major wholesale-data-center presence in the Hong Kong and Frankfurt markets if its expansion plans come to fruition.

These are both mature data center markets. Foust says part of the company’s strategy is not to enter emerging markets to avoid risk.

“The markets that we’re actively building in – both US and internationally – are major markets,” he said. “Whether it’s London or Dallas or Singapore or Northern Virginia, we’re not taking emerging-market risk at all.”

Another way the company mitigates risk in new markets is its set of procedures for entering them. They include very specific programs on design, contracting, project management, commissioning and property operations in new markets.

The company always brings market leaders from the regions it moves into to come in first and start the project as it trains local workforce.

“For example our folks in Australia and Singapore are long-time data center experts and operators in those markets.”